


spirals

by kalypsobean



Category: Chicago Fire, Chicago PD (TV)
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-12 05:46:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9058243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kalypsobean/pseuds/kalypsobean





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [csichick_2](https://archiveofourown.org/users/csichick_2/gifts).



"I don't think you need that," he says, and takes her beer for himself. It's not his favourite, and it's not Molly's, where she would have been given half the alcohol and told it was on the house, until Jay or Voight arrived to get her home. This is a bar he's never been too, and might actually have enjoyed, if it wasn't for the way she sat at her table, one leg bent on her stool and one scraping the floor as if she was ready to move in an instant. Her skin is different, too; he knows how it should feel - rough and cool, not clammy and certainly not waxy. Her hands slip on his as she tries to take the bottle back.

"Come on, Kelly, you know how this goes," she says. "I got this."

"Yeah," he says, and makes a point of waiting for eye contact, though when he gets it it doesn't last. Her cheeks are shiny, even in this lighting, and he realises the difference isn't just from tears.

"I know how this goes," he says. Erin didn't usually make such an effort with makeup, even on dates, and he recalls that desperation, the feeling that if you just looked fine everything else would follow. "Come on, you helped me, remember? Let me help you." She stops swiping at the bottle and puts her head to the table, where she mumbles into the plastic as if it's the only thing that understands her.

"I have the good stuff back home," he says. It gets her attention long enough that he can grab her waist. "Let's go."

He puts a note on the table and helps her up; the bartender is watching, and he nods. A taxi is waiting for them outside, which Kelly is grateful for, though it's not entirely reassuring. He'd known where to look because Erin had once mentioned going there with Nadia, but being known and being looked after seemed to be two different things.

Erin had let him lead her and now she snuggles into his side, and he wonders if he left enough to cover her tab, because ordinarily, she would never; he knows that feeling too, the need for physical contact, even without knowing why.

 

"You don't have to do this alone," he says, when she's in his house, on his bed, and he's not sure what he's asking.

"Nope," she says, but when he tries to get her to drink some water, she's passed out. He checks her pulse and breathing, just in case.

 

He falls asleep from watching her, and she's gone when he wakes up.


End file.
